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Day 27 - Arriving to Big Bend

Dear Family and Friends, Welcome to my shiny new Road Trip Daily blog. Here you can find day-by-day posts from my trip (swipe left and right to go quickly between days in mobile view) and if you are on a family google group or the new Road Trip Daily blog-specific google group then you will receive automatic daily updates in your email inbox!  Technology.. So cool. Do let me know if you aren't receiving messages or the blog isn't working. 

So on to today: Ten hours was the time it would take me to drive to Big Bend National Park in the far southwest corner of Texas. I had wanted badly to visit Big Bend but since it was six hours out of the way, I had left it off the original itinerary, instead sticking near El Paso for White Sands, Guadalupe Mountains, and Carslbad Caverns. But since my detour to Chiricahua was so successful and the weather ideal in Big Bend, I decided to go for it. 

Good decision. I arrived to Big Bend by 6pm and sped down a winding 30-mile scenic road (pic 1) to Cottonwood campground near the Rio Grande River. Finding a campsite is priority number one when I arrive to a park and since most are first-come-first-serve arriving late is not good. But I called ahead and new that Cottonwood would have availability. 


After a while I saw towering cliffs in front of me and was bewildered. They were huge in the distance and seemed almost unnatural and out of place. I assumed the road was winding east west or north as I knew the river was south and thought the mountains couldn't be by the river. But then I remembered some pictures of Big Bend and hey!  that's the Rio Grande. The Wall-Game of Thrones style between the U.S. and Mexico. As you got closer the wall dominated the skyline. It was a site to behold. See pic. 


After securing my campsite, I drove six more miles to one of the park highlights: the Santa Elena canyon-- 1500 foot and narrow canyon walls from the south entering from Mexico. This is an infamous white water rafting river section because there is an impossible rocks section. The park has a mile hike into the canyon and I arrived at dusk and crossed the river into the canyon just as the darkness was setting in. Then I hiked out at night with my headlamp and drove back and slept-- happy to have made it this far south. 



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